Fuses and Fires

When I installed my auxiliary battery I put it in a battery box. Normally I would have bought a plain one and added any accessories/connectors myself however When I bought the DC/Solar Charger it came with a 'posh' battery box from the same maker for less than I could buy just the charger elsewhere.

I say posh because this particular box had Anderson plugs, a pair of heavy duty terminals, a lighter socket, another type of socket and a battery monitor already fitted.


When I received it I was not at all happy with it, to me it was a potential fire hazard. Only the two small connectors had any sort of protection in the form of 10 amp circuit breakers, the Anderson Plugs and external terminals had no fuses at all.

One of my first jobs was to disconnect their wiring and fit suitable fuses to all connections because any short circuit could have potentially caused a fire.

The main battery now connection has a 40amp fuse, the Anderson plugs 30 amps each (probably will change one to 10 amps for the fridge). There is also a 50 amp fuse at the main battery and another between the charger and the battery itself.

You might already know that a lead acid battery can discharge many 100s of amps if short circuited which is enough to cause most wiring to melt if it is not protected by fuses.

It is unfortunate that you cannot rely on specialist auto gear makers to look after you as this battery box clearly shows. Beware.